MH370 search: Pilot Zaharie Shah

named as chief suspect by Malaysian

investigators after plans for Indian
Ocean flight are found on simulator

Malaysias criminal investigation into the disappearance of flight MH370 has identified
the planes pilot as its prime suspect, it has been reported.
While the official results of the inquiry are yet to be published, details have been
passed on to foreign governments and crash investigators, according to the Sunday
Times.
They revealed that after detectives carried out 170 interviews and profiled all of the
239 people on board the Boeing 777 when it vanished on 8 March, Captain Zaharie
Shah was left as the most likely perpetrator if deliberate human action is to blame.
Satellite data provided by the British firm Inmarsat have shown that the jet took a
sharp left turn after leaving Malaysian airspace en route from Kuala Lumpur to
Beijing. It then followed a long arc deep into the southern Indian Ocean, where it
presumably ran out of fuel and crashed.
Investigators have previously refused to clear the captains flight simulator of
suspicious activity, and it now appears they found evidence of routes programmed to
take a plane far out into the Indian Ocean and practising landing using a short
runway on an island.
The data from the simulated flights had been deleted, the Timesreported, but
computer experts were able to retrieve them.
The police probe has also revealed that the 53-year-old captain was unique among
those on board the flight for having no recorded commitments, either socially or for
work, to take place after the date of the MH370 journey.
This was not in keeping with Zaharies usually outgoing and open nature, police said,
and in contrast to the activities of his co-pilot, Fariq Hamid, and the rest of the crew.
The reported findings of the criminal investigation rely only on circumstantial
evidence, and make mention of rumours of trouble in the pilots marriage and home
life that have been denied by his family.
He was a veteran pilot who joined Malaysia Airlines in 1981, and had more than
18,000 hours of flying experience.
he inquiry also does not rule of the possibility that the jet crashed due to some form
of mechanical failure or an act of terrorism.
A spokesperson for the Malaysian police told the Times: The police investigation is
still ongoing. To date no conclusions can be made as to the contributor to the
incident and it would be sub judice to say so. Nevertheless, the police are still looking
into all possible angles.
Zaharies family has said that the truth about what happened will only be revealed
when MH370s black box flight recorders are found.
And the recovery effort to locate the planes wreckage, the most extensive in aviation
history, could be months or even years from making any real progress.
It emerged at the end of last week that the next phase of the search will focus on an
area of the Indian Ocean hundreds of miles south of the first suspected crash site.
A Dutch ship has now joined the Chinese vessel tasked with surveying the ocean
floor within a vast search zone, after which contractors will have 300 days to scan the
designated area.











Missing Malaysia Airlines flight
MH370: The 13 theories that could
explain where the plane is - and what
happened to it

Officials today confirmed what we have feared for some time - that a relatively tiny
search zone in the southern Indian Ocean is not the final resting place of Malaysia
Airlines flight MH370.
From an underwater mission covering 850 sq km (320 sq mile) where acoustic
"pings" were heard, the area being searched has now been extended to around a
60,000 sq km (23,100 sq mile) zone based on satellite data which remains disputed
in some quarters.
The Australia-led search control team estimate it could be August - next year - before
this region has been covered, and hopes of finding the Boeing 777's flight recorders
are becoming increasingly dim.
With so much uncertainty surrounding the circumstances of MH370's bizarre
disappearance, it has become rich territory for aviation experts, bloggers and
conspiracy theorists alike.
Here we round up 13 of the most prominent theories as to where the plane ended up,
and what went wrong in the first place.
Shot down in a military
training exercise
While the Australian officials leading the search for MH370 say they remain
absolutely convinced it ended up in the southern Indian Ocean, some passengers
families and theorists distrust the unprecedented satellite data analysis involved.
Among those who support this view are the British journalist and author Nigel
Cawthorne, who has controversially already published the first book on the planes
disappearance.
He supports one theory, based on the eye-witness testimony of New Zealand oil rig
worker Mike McKay, that the plane was shot down shortly after it stopped
communicating with air traffic controllers.
At the time there was a series of war games taking place in the South China Sea
involving Thailand, the US and personnel from China, Japan, Indonesia and others,
and Cawthorne has linked this to Mr McKays claims to have seen a burning plane
going down in the Gulf of Thailand.
Flown north and shot down deliberately,
prompting cover-up
At a stage in the investigation when it was believed the plane could have flown for
some time from where it disappeared along either a northern or southern corridor,
many posted on forums suggesting that if it had been the former we would never
hear about what happened.
Some still support this view, and former RAF navigator Sean Maffetttold the BBC that
after 9/11, any unidentified airliner entering the airspace of another country would
lead to fighter jets being scrambled.
If the plane is in the northern arc it could easily have been shot down, he said. This
theory also involves a national or possibly international cover-up, based on the
premise that no country would want to admit to shooting down an airliner full of
passengers from all over the world.
Flown north in the shadow of another
plane
Another theory suggests that instead of flying south, the plane flew north in the
shadow of another airliner around half an hour to an hour after dropping off civilian
radar.
The aviation blogger Keith Ledgerwood argued that MH370 and Singapore Airlines
flight 68 were in the same vicinity at the time, and said: It became apparent as I
inspected SIA68's flight path history that MH370 had manoeuvred itself directly
behind SIA68 at approximately 18:00UTC and over the next 15 minutes had been
following SIA68.
By flying a short distance behind and most likely a little above the altitude of SIA68,
also a Boeing 777, Ledgerwood said that it would be able to appear as a single blip
on radar screens.
SIA68 flew on to Spain and this theory suggests MH370 could have branched off
and landed in one of a number of locations across Xinjiang (north-east China),
Kyrgyzstan or Turkmenistan.
Experts have said that the idea sounds feasible, and that even if higher-resolution
military radar was monitoring SIA68 operators might have dismissed the fact that
there were two objects as an technical glitch or echo.
Tried to land on a desert island beach
After reports that the plane had turned left shortly following its disappearance from
civilian radar screens, speculation grew that it could have landed on a remote beach
somewhere like the Andaman Islands, which lie between Indonesia and the coast of
Thailand.
Though CNN reported that locals dismissed the idea a Boeing 777 could land on an
airstrip there undetected, the archipelago consists of hundreds of remote islands with
some long stretches of sand.
Former BA pilot Steve Buzdygan said it would be difficult but not impossible to
bring a 777 down on a long deserted beach.
Landed at a US military base
One of the more outlandish conspiracy theories that has gained some traction online
is the idea that MH370 could have been captured and flown to a military base on
the UK-owned tropical atoll of Diego Garcia, in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
The base is run by the US, and some have reportedly said in forum postings that the
Kremlin has put some credence into this possibility.
Such is the strength of belief in this theory that the US government has been forced
to issue a denial. A spokesperson for the US embassy in Malaysia told the local Star
newspaper that there was no indication that MH370 flew anywhere near the
Maldives or Diego Garcia. MH370 did not land in Diego Garcia, he added.
Headed for a remote airport in
Langkawi, Malaysia
One theory, put forward by another aviation blogger named Chris Goodfellow, has it
that the sudden left turn came after major catastrophe knocked out a range of the
planes electronics, from transponders to communications equipment.
In this scenario and in the middle of the night, Goodfellow argued, the pilot would
redirect towards the nearest safe airport.
This pilot did all the right things, he said. Actually he was taking a direct route to
Palau Langkawi, a 13,000ft (4,000m) strip with an approach over water at night with
no obstacles. He did not turn back to Kuala Lumpur because he knew he had 8,000ft
ridges to cross. He knew the terrain was friendlier towards Langkawi and also a
shorter distance.
This theory assumes that the plane was in fact controlled manually once it
disappeared and that it did not make it to Langkawi.
A fire throughout the plane
Many theories accept that the Inmarsat satellite analysis is accurate that the plane
headed south into the Indian Ocean and flew on for hours before a final, partial
handshake in a remote location thousands of miles off the west coast of Australia.
The issue here becomes explaining what happened in the cabin between the last
contact with flight controllers and the planes seemingly inevitable crash far out to
see.
One suggestion is that a fire broke out, not just in the cockpit but throughout the
interior of the plane. The implication is that this resulted in the attempt to turn back,
after which the fire killed those on board.
This theory would then have it that the fire went out before damaging the exterior of
the plane, which flew on autopilot until its fuel ran out.
Yet such a fire would be expected to spread with at least some warning and that
surely would have given the pilots time to issue a mayday distress signal.
An explosion in the cockpit
The theory of a sudden explosion within the cockpit before the turn left could explain
why there was no attempt to signal for help.
Since 9/11 cockpits doors have been fortified to become extremely difficult to bypass,
and such a sudden incident could perhaps have incapacitated both pilots while
keeping out the rest of the crew.
This explanation does not seem to tally with the claims of some Malaysian officials,
however, that the change in direction was the result of seven or eight keystrokes into
a computer on a knee-high pedestal between the captain and the first officer.
A struggle at altitude
Though Malaysian officials believe that the plane was deliberately diverted, and that
its communications systems were turned off one after the other, a detailed
background check into all 227 passengers has cleared all of suspicion.
If, however, we do accept that the plane was the subject of a passenger hijacking, it
remains to be explained why the hijackers did not try to do more than fly the plane
into the middle of the southern Indian Ocean.
One theory suggests that there was some kind of struggle for control of the plane that
ultimately ended with mutual destruction.
Further analysis of data by Malaysian officials suggests that the plane was flown
erratically once it left civilian radar, climbing to 45,000ft before dropping very low.
Buzdygan told the BBC he would resort to this sort of flying if faced with would-be
hijackers. Id try to disorientate and confuse the hijackers by throwing them around,
he said.
A botched hijack attempt
The climb to 45,000ft could also have been carried out by the hijackers once they
had taken control in a bid to kill the passengers on board.
At such an altitude it could be possible to depressurise the cabin, causing oxygen
supplies to be deployed. These run out after 12-15 minutes and, if those flying the
plane had access to another oxygen supply, could have been an attempt to prevent
anyone intervening.
Under this theory the suggestion is clearly that the attempt failed, killing the hijackers
as well.
Pilot suicide
As part of the ongoing criminal investigation in Malaysia, police are looking into the
state of mind and possible motives of the captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah and co-pilot
Fariq Abdul Hamid.
The Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar has said that all possibilities will be
looked into, and there have been reports that Shah was going through a difficult
marriage break-up.
Yet such comments have been rubbished by the mans relatives, who have described
him since as a dedicated family man and model professional.
Hugh Dunleavy, the commercial director of Malaysia Airlines, described Shah as a
seasoned pilot with an excellent record.
There have been absolutely no implications that we are aware of that there was
anything untoward in either his behaviour or attitude, he told Reuters. We have no
reason to believe that there was anything, any actions, internally by the crew that
caused the disappearance of this aircraft.
Sabotage for a life insurance scam or
corporate attack
One of the other strands of the criminal investigation regards whether the plane was
subject to some form of sabotage either as part of a life insurance scam or over
industrial espionage.
Bakar said that when passengers and crew were being investigated, police were
looking for Maybe somebody on the flight has bought a huge sum of insurance, who
wants family to gain from it or somebody who has owed somebody so much money,
you know, we are looking at all possibilities.
There were also 20 employees of the US silicon chip company Freescale
Semiconductor on board the plane at the time, and a retired Delta Airlines pilot has
suggested the planes disappearance was an attempt to steal technology the
engineers had applied but not yet received a patent for.
A CIA cover-up
Finally, the former prime minister of Malaysia Mahathir Mohamad has waded in with
his own theory suggesting that, one way or another, the CIA is definitely hiding
something.
In a blog entry posted on 18 May entitled Boeing Technology What goes up must
come down, Dr Mahathir Mohamad makes ten claims including that the plane was
taken over remotely by officials working for Boeing and the CIA.
The plane is somewhere, maybe without MAS markings, reads Dr Mohamads post
on chedet.
Someone is hiding something. It is not fair that MAS and Malaysia should take the
blame, 88-year-old Dr Mahathir, who was Malaysia's prime minister between 1981
and 2003, alleges.
Airplanes dont just disappear, he said, concluding: For some reason the media will
not print anything that involves Boeing or the CIA. I hope my readers will read this.
Boeing have denied Dr Mohameds theory.